North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned the United States and South Korea that his country would be willing to use its nuclear arsenal against them.
Kim’s threat, which he issued during a speech on Thursday honoring Korean War veterans on the 69th anniversary of the end of the fighting, comes as U.S. and South Korean intelligence agencies have warned that North Korea appears on the verge of conducting its first nuclear test since 2017.
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“Our armed forces are completely prepared to respond to any crisis, and our country’s nuclear war deterrent is also ready to mobilize its absolute power dutifully, exactly, and swiftly in accordance with its mission,” Kim said in Wednesday’s speech, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
He accused the U.S. of having “double standards” and “gangsterlike” actions over its joint military drills with South Korea.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who took office this May, has taken a harsher rhetoric toward North Korea than the previous president and expressed plans to bolster South Korea’s defense capabilities.
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“Talking about military action against our nation, which possesses absolute weapons that they fear the most, is preposterous and is very dangerous suicidal action,” Kim said of South Korea. “Such a dangerous attempt will be immediately punished by our powerful strength, and the Yoon Suk Yeol government and his military will be annihilated.”
In early June, the U.S. and South Korea fired eight ballistic missiles into the sea in a show of force a day after the North Koreans launched the same number of short-range missiles.
